Driver was headed toward the bridge when her car went into flood water (now gone) on this side of it and was swept downstream (to the left) into wooded area. Debris against the trees shows how high the water was Wednesday night. Glen Greissinger

EAST AMWELL TWP. – An East Amwell woman and her car were carried downstream at least 600 yards in flood water from the Neshanic River Wednesday night.

The 72-year-old woman, Carol Bialas, was finally rescued with an inflatable boat by personnel from the Flemington-Raritan Rescue Squad Marine Unit, after more than two hours trapped in her car.

Wet and cold, she suffered from mild hypothermia, according to Captain Mike Grzankowski of the Amwell Valley Rescue Squad. It and Amwell Valley Fire Company had been initially dispatched.

The alert came in around 10 p.m. and the incident was reported to be near 90 Welisewitz Road. The first personnel on the scene called for Lambertville-New Hope rescue squad to respond with its boat.

“We could not see her car from Welisewitz Road” because it was dark and raining and the vehicle was in a wooded area, Grzankowski said. Initially people living nearby thought they heard another voice and some neighbors brought out canoes to help in the search.

Eventually the rescuers and State Troopers determined that only one person was involved and the car, a Hyundai Sonata, was on the north side of Neshanic River, not the south side where they were. The Zodiac inflatable boat from Flemington-Raritan was brought in from the north, via Amwell Road, and reached Bialas. It was close to midnight.

“She was soaking wet” because of the water in her car, but had not been submerged, Grzankowski said. She was taken to Hunterdon Medical Center as a precaution, according to State Police at the Kingwood station.

More than 4 inches of rain fell on Wednesday in the Hunterdon area, causing many streams and creeks to rise out of their banks and there was extensive road flooding. The woman had been driving south on Cider Mill Road and in the darkness did not see that a “dip” just before the bridge over the Neshanic was filled with water, about 3 or 4 feet deep, Grzankowski said.

The rescuers figured what once her car hit the water, the strong current carried it at 600 to 700 yards downstream before it got “hung up” on trees and stopped, he said.